The findings of the Thomson Reuters 2016 KYC Challenges Surveys risk
being misread as a statement of the obvious: further to the global changes in
KYC regulations, the costs and complexities of conducting the due diligence
required to Know Your Customer are huge and furthermore on the increase.

What is less immediately apparent is the scale and volume in question –
from an industry average spend of $60 million, a number of financial firms are
shelling out up to a staggering $500 million to meet their compliance demands.

Possibly more alarmingly are the time-frames required to vet and
on-board – up 22% from 2015 and projected to increase by at least another 18%
in 2017, with a third of respondents claiming on-boarding times in excess of
two months, and 1 in ten experiencing wait times of over 4 months and an
average of 8 different interactions with the bank throughout the period –
effectively double that reported by the institutions.

Furthermore, despite the significant increases reported in resources
working solely on KYC processes over the past year, there is a huge disconnect
between perceived and factual accuracy of data, where while 7 out of 10
financial institutions believe that all or most of their clients report KYC
status changes proactively, less than a third of all corporate customers
reported doing so.

Unsurprisingly, the KYC Challenges Surveys also conclude that the
frustration endured by the customers is costing the financial institutions
dearly - almost 9 out of 10 corporate customers surveyed expressed their
dissatisfaction with the KYC processes and 13% have been found to have changed
banks as a result.

A clear conclusion of the Thomson Reuters KYC Surveys 2016 is that KYC
and Customer Due Diligence process are not about simply being compliant and
meeting legal obligations. Operations possessing the right technology platforms
for Customer Due Diligence, like the Aqubix KYC Portal, provide positive and
efficient on-boarding processes that contribute directly to gaining competitive
advantages, directly impacting profit margins and both customer retention and
revenues.

KYC Portal is an essential CDD platform that goes beyond simply
identifying who your customers are but further integrates with your existing
systems and third party data suppliers to monitor their ongoing status,
transaction analyses and reporting.